The Perks of Being a Wallflower: An Introspective Mental Health Agenda

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a movie released on September 26, 2012, that stars childhood star, Emma Watson, and rising star at the time, Logan Lerman. It was directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on Chbosky's 1999 novel of the same name. Logan Lerman stars as Charlie, a 15-year-old junior who made friends with his seniors, Sam and Patrick; learning to cope with anxiety, and learning to deal with his traumatic past. The movie depicts the struggle that young introverted people go through in a high school setting.This movie is tantamount to a great coming-of-age film, because of its dexterity to layer heart-wrenching and honest lines to well-acted scenes; remaining true to the book, the film lets you experience an introspective soliloquy of the protagonist, Charlie.

Set in 1992, Charlie is a 15-year-old boy who has made little to know friends before high school. On the first day of school, he is seen alone eating in the cafeteria and making efforts to rekindle old friendships but failing; "Why didn't you raise your hands?" Inquired Mr. Anderson, an English professor who saw the value of Charlie, who was his only success at making friends on the first day. He then met Sam and Patrick, who are half-siblings who befriended him for the reason that he has no friends at all. At the first meeting, Charlie developed having a crush on Sam and even helped her improve her SAT results by tutoring her. As a result of this gesture, Charlie was gifted a typewriter from Sam, and gave him a kiss on the lips, with no malice intended. When Craig (Sam's boyfriend) was MIA on both their Broadway Show and Prom, Charlie willingly fills in his place and made sure Sam was happy.

Unwilling to entertain speculations and questions, Brad (Patrick's closeted boyfriend) went to school with a swollen eye-- he was punched by his father after finding out that he was gay-- and disguised the truth, even went to the extent as to call Patrick a "fa****" in the school cafeteria, because of his inability to defend him in front of his friends. An ugly fistfight broke loose between Patrick and Brad, with Brad's friends beating up Patrick; Ultimately, Charlie intervened and stopped the fight by punching Brad's friends one by one, causing him to have a blackout. The blackout was a catalyst for the intermittent flashing of childhood memories that he experienced for the remainder of the film. The day that Sam went off to college, Charlie went berserk and blamed himself for the death of his aunt (this was his childhood trauma) on the phone call he had with his sister who abruptly realized her brother is in trouble and called the cops to their house. Charlie was put in a mental institution for months to be monitored, and later to be revealed in the film that his aunt, sexually abused him as a child. 

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All I could say are positive things about the movie. What I liked most coincidingly baffled me the most, which was the revelation in the near end of the film, when it was revealed in flashes, that Charlie's aunt sexually abused him when he was just a young boy. Those images shown in flashes were so powerful and moving that I tried hard to reverse my tears back to my eyes. The fact that the movie was adapted from a book of the same name, helped in the development of the storyline, and add up events fluently and flawlessly. The characters were unforgettable because they each had their story being told and narrated, which draw the viewers closer and heed to the film intently. The attention to detail was surreal; the 1992 aesthetic was achieved with great picture blend, and use of vintage objects such as cassette tapes, typewriters, etc.

The cast of this film, perfectly fits the role of the characters, as they themselves were almost alike with the characters in real life. Emma Watson's performance as Sam, for me, was the greatest compliment the casting crew wished for, while Logan Lerman's effortless interpretation of Charlie, was the cohesive that glued the scenes together. The cast and the story itself, we're very distinct of their audience, which marketed the movie to a specific audience only, but was also a very good move, if the filmmakers want the movie to only be seen by the people who in the first place, were their target market. 

Overall, the film is great and doesn't have a sugar-coating; it maintained its honesty and vulnerability from start to finish. What makes this film stand out from the rest is its impeccable use of vehement emotions in perfectly mundane happenstances-- it enabled the film to expound on the intricacies of human emotions, in a context where it anchored to trite teenage conundrums. The movie's storyline is a narrow straight line with intervals of jigsaw pieces of the protagonist's tumultuous past which kept me entertained and puzzled.